Interactive translation tool

ABSTRACT

A translation window is opened in conjunction with a primary window, such as a Web page window containing Web pages hosted on the Internet. The translation window and primary window are automatically adjusted in size and position so that they fit on one user-viewable screen without overlapping. The translation window is linked to a translation dictionary database accessible through the Internet which provides accurate and comprehensive definitions of the words that are identified to be translated.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application14/458,193, filed Aug. 12, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/855,586, filed Apr. 2, 2013, issued as U.S. Pat.No. 8,805,670 on Aug. 12, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/136,239, filed Jun. 10, 2008, issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,412,509 on Apr. 2, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/617,169, filed Jul. 17, 2000, issued asU.S. Pat. No. 7,389,221 on Jun. 17, 2008. These applications areincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to the field of language translation.More specifically, the present invention relates to an interactivelanguage translation system and method used through the Internet.

An interactive language learning program, via, e.g., the Internet, thatcan reach a large number of users in varied locations, and which allowsthe users to work on their own schedule and at their own pace canstimulate language learning in a variety of locations not accessible orsuccessfully accessed by other, static, language learning programs.

A useful component of an interactive language learning program is aconvenient and accurate translation means or program that can provideuser translations for a variety of materials both inside and outside thelanguage learning course materials. In this manner, a translationprogram can be used to supplement the user's language learningexperience.

Probably the best known translation system is the various hard copylanguage translation dictionaries. However, these dictionaries havedrawbacks that render them generally unsuitable for effective languagelearning. They are not interactive, and thus users often find them dryand difficult to deal with. These inherent traits can translate into auser's dissatisfaction with the language learning experience in total,and ultimately defeat the program's goal to stimulate and encouragelanguage learning. Too, hard copy translation dictionaries may bedifficult to procure, or the copies that are available may not becurrent. Again, these problems can manifest in a user's overalldissatisfaction with the underlying language instruction.

There are also known Web-based translation programs that currentlyexist, yet each of these known programs also have characteristics thatmake them unsatisfactory for interactive language learning instruction.First, many of the known translation programs translate an entire targetWeb page. These translations are often inaccurate because they provideliteral translations without regard for sentence structure or context.Also, by providing a translation of an entire Web page, these programsare counterproductive to language learning. Language instruction is mostsuccessful when it is interactive, and when the student is stimulated toput forth the effort to learn. One component of language learning isreading comprehension. Yet, when a student is able to receive an entiretranslation of any particular Web page on the Internet, he/she will notderive any motivation to try and translate on their own. Thus, by usingcurrently available translation programs on the Internet, the languagestudent loses opportunities to become more proficient at reading andlearning the second language.

Also, many of the known Web-based translation programs are difficult touse, especially when a user/student opens and closes Web pages whilehe/she is browsing the Internet. In particular, with the knowntranslation programs hosted on the Internet, the user/student can onlysee either the original Web page, or the translated Web page provided bythe translation program. The user can try and adjust the position andsize of the two pages on their screen to view them simultaneously, butthis is inconvenient at best, and can be a cumbersome or even difficulttask for many novice users. Moreover, each time the user wishes to viewand translate a new Web page, they will be required to once againposition and size the new Web page and the translation page if they wantto view, and thus compare, both simultaneously. Too, with knownWeb-based translation programs, the user must separately open and closethe translation program page in order to translate various different Webpages, and thus, must keep track of both the Web site of interest, andthe Web page hosting the translation program.

Therefore, there is a need for a language translation program offeredthrough the Internet that overcomes these limitations and is appropriatefor a language learning context.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an interactive language translationprogram. An objective of the present invention is to provide aninteractive and convenient system and method for translating informationidentified by a user/student while the user/student browses various Webpages on the Internet.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a system for languagetranslation comprises a translation window that is created by a programin a primary Web page and is opened in conjunction with a Web pagewindow containing a secondary Web page. The translation window and theWeb page window are positioned and sized so that the translation windowand the Web page window fit on the user's screen simultaneously, withoutoverlapping. The system includes a translator that is linked to atranslation dictionary database. The translation window comprises aninput field for a user to provide information in a first language, andan output field comprising information in a second languagecorresponding to the translation of the information in the firstlanguage.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a method of languagetranslation comprises providing a translation window that is executed bya program in a primary Web page that is opened in conjunction with a Webpage window. The translation window and Web page window are adjusted insize and position to allow both to be simultaneously viewed on a user'sscreen, without any overlap. This method further comprises receivinginput information in a first language, translating the information fromthe first language to a second language, and outputting the informationin the second language.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent upon consideration of the following detailed descriptionand the accompanying drawings, in which like reference designationsrepresent like features throughout the figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a subject board on a home Web page;

FIG. 2 depicts a language choice window;

FIG. 3 depicts a translation program Web page;

FIG. 4 depicts a translation window adjacent to a Web page windowcontaining a secondary Web page;

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict JavaScript code for opening a translation window;

FIG. 6 depicts a translation window with a translation output adjacentto a Web page window;

FIG. 7 depicts a translation window with a translation output adjacentto a Web page window containing a tertiary Web page; and

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C depict JavaScript code for creating a server query,and opening a Web page window on a user's screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, toone skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown and/or described in a generic form inorder to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention.

A user of the interactive translation application or program uses acomputer, or other similar device. In an embodiment, the computer orother device is capable of accessing the Internet, or World Wide Web(WWW). The user views the various Web pages, or screens, of the program,on a display, or screen, connected to, or otherwise associated with, thedevice used to access the Internet. The user interacts with thetranslation program by inputting information to the program via akeyboard, mouse, touch pad and/or other device(s) capable of inputtingcharacters and clicking on, or otherwise choosing, buttons, boxes, menusand Web pages on their display.

The system and method of the present invention are practiced byaccessing a primary Web page. This Web page may include an index orsubject board that lists various links to offered programs and services.An example subject board 100, depicted in FIG. 1, shows a Resourcesheading 105 and a link 110 to a translation program, e.g., the“Traveling Translator™.” A user may use the translation program byclicking on, or otherwise selecting, link 110.

After selecting link 110, a user can be prompted to select a translationlanguage. An exemplary language choice window 200, depicted in FIG. 2,provides the user with a choice of a number of translation languages205. The user may choose any of the designated languages by selectingthe appropriate button 210 next to the language 205 in the languagechoice window 200. After choosing the desired translation language 205,the user clicks on the “OK” button 220 and accesses the translationprogram Web page. Alternatively, if the user wishes to exit the languagechoice window without accessing the translation program Web page, he/shemay click on the “Cancel” button 225.

In another embodiment, the translation program is accessed via anon-line language learning instruction course, and the translationlanguage for the translation program automatically defaults to thelanguage learning user's native language, which he/she designated atsome earlier time in accessing the instruction materials. In thisembodiment, when the user clicks on link 110 of FIG. 1, the translationprogram Web page is immediately accessed.

An exemplary translation program Web page 320, shown in FIG. 3, providesinstructions 315 that describe how the user is to use the translationprogram in conjunction with Web sites hosted on the Internet. In orderfor the user to use the translation program while accessing various Websites, the user types a URL 305 of a desired Web page in text box 300.For example, the user may type a URL, as indicated in text box 300. Tothen use the translation program with the Web page at URL 305, the userclicks on the “GO” button 310.

As shown in FIG. 4, a translation window 400 is created by a programhosted by the primary Web page, and is opened in conjunction with a Webpage window 420 containing the secondary Web page 450 selected by theuser in text box 300 of FIG. 3. The translation window 400 and the Webpage window 420 are automatically sized and positioned so that theysimultaneously fit on one user visible screen without overlapping.Through this process, the user is able to view the secondary Web page450 while having access to the translation window 400, without having tomake any adjustments in the size or position of either.

An embodiment JavaScript code 510 for opening a translation window 400is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. The JavaScript code 510 also first checks520 to see if a translation language has been previously selected by theuser. If not, an “alert” message is displayed to the user 530,indicating that the user should first choose a translation language. TheJavaScript code 510 further checks 540 to see if the user has indicateda valid URL, by checking the length of the URL input into text box 300.If no URL was input, or it is deemed invalid, the JavaScript code 510causes an “alert” message to be displayed to the user 550, indicatingthat the user should enter a valid URL into text box 300.

Referring again to FIG. 4, in an embodiment, the translation window 400includes an input field 405, a translation direction field 410, a“Translate” button 415 and an output field 430. In an embodiment, theuser may type a word or phrase to be translated into the input field405. The word or phrase is generally expected to come from the secondaryWeb page 450 displayed with the translation window 400, but there is noconstraint or requirement for this.

In other embodiments, the user may drag-and-drop or right-click a wordor phrase from the secondary Web page 450 to transfer the word or phraseto the input field 405. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a user mayright click on a first target word 425 (e.g., “Mail”). In this manner,the word “Mail” will be input to input field 405.

To enhance the flexibility of the translation program, in an embodiment,the translator will accept one or more search modifiers such as, but notlimited to, “exact match,” “contains” and “starts with.” Thus, the usercan either translate specific words (“exact match”) or key off of wordsin the secondary Web page 450, or elsewhere, to learn the translationsfor related words (“contains” or “starts with” options).

In an embodiment, the input field 405 will only accept a word or a shortphrase (e.g., less than five words). In another embodiment, the inputfield 405 will only accept one word at a time. In these embodiments, theuser is precluded from systematically relying on the translation systemto the detriment of exerting his/her own efforts to master a newlanguage. Thus, by limiting the amount of material that a user cantranslate at once, the user is provided immediate support for languagelearning difficulties while also encouraged to achieve greater readingcomprehension skills in the language they are working to learn.

In an embodiment, the translation direction field 410 provides twooptions to the user. The user can either translate from English to theirtranslation language, or alternatively, from their translation languageto English. In the exemplary translation direction field 410 of FIG. 4,the user has selected option 435 that is “English to Spanish”; i.e., theuser has chosen to translate from English to their translation language,Spanish. Thus, the user would input an English word or phrase in theinput field 405, and receive back the Spanish translation in the outputfield 430. Alternatively, if the user had chosen the option “Spanish toEnglish,” the user would input a Spanish word or phrase in the inputfield 405 and receive back the English translation in the output field430.

After placing a word or phrase in input field 405, the user clicks onthe “Translate” button 415. The translator, which is linked to atranslation dictionary database accessible through the Internet,provides a translation 505 of the target word or phrase 425 in the inputfield 405 to the user, in the output field 430, as shown in FIG. 6. Inan embodiment, the translation 505 comprises one or more dictionarydefinitions of the target word 425. In an embodiment, the translation505 includes all the various meanings for all the forms, i.e., verb,noun, adjective, adverb, etc., of the target word 425. As the correctmeaning of a word is often dictated by its context of use, by providingthe user the various dictionary definitions of the target word 425, theuser is encouraged to learn and apply the appropriate definition of thetarget word 425 in the context from which it is currently derived.

An embodiment JavaScript code 650 for creating a server query, andopening a Web page window on a user's screen is shown in FIGS. 8A, 8B,and 8C.

In an embodiment, if the user moves from the secondary Web page 450 to athird, or tertiary, Web page, by typing a second URL in the address box440 of the secondary Web page 450, the tertiary Web page is displayed onthe user's screen such that both the tertiary Web page and thetranslation window 400 are visible with no overlapping. As seen in FIG.7, Web page window 420 containing tertiary Web page 600 for the URL 605,is shown next to translation window 400. The user may input anothertarget word 615 (e.g., “register”) to the input field 405 of thetranslation window 400, and obtain a translation definition 610 inoutput field 430.

A user can continue to input words or phrases into the translationwindow, always with the ability to select for any translation totranslate from English to their translation language or from theirtranslation language to English. The user may also continue to accessnew Web pages in conjunction with the translator window, viewable on thesame user screen with no overlap, by writing the URL of the desired Webpage in the address box of the current Web page displayed on theirscreen.

Thus, in an embodiment, the system and method for language translationprovides the user with translation capabilities for each Web page ashe/she “browses” the Internet until the user closes or reduces thetranslation window 400. This translation language system and methodfacilitates language learning as it is useful and convenient. Yet thislanguage learning system and method encourages language learning byrequiring the user to determine the correct definition of any particularword or phrase as dictated by the context in which the word or phrase iscurrently being used.

This description of the invention has been presented for the purposes ofillustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise form described, and manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the teachingabove. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of the invention and its practical applications.This description will enable others skilled in the art to best utilizeand practice the invention in various embodiments and with variousmodifications as are suited to a particular use. The scope of theinvention is defined by the following claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system comprising at least one processorexecuting program code instructions on a server computer coupled to anetwork, the program code instructions causing the server computer to:encode a translation web page, the translation web page including agraphical user interface (GUI), and the GUI containing a GUI inputfield; transmit the translation web page to a client device coupled tothe network for display; receive, from the GUI input field displayedwithin the GUI on the client device, a transmission encoding a userinput in a first language; access, via the network, a databasecommunication interface receiving query commands causing a translationdictionary database to select a translation of the user input into asecond language; encode a translation transmission comprising thetranslation; transmit the translation transmission of the user inputinto the second language to the client device for display within a GUIoutput field displayed within the GUI on the client device.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the translation web page is encoded andtransmitted responsive to a receipt of a message indicating a selectionof a link.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first language receivedby the GUI text input field automatically defaults to a native languageof a user.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second language isselected from a GUI selection control identifying a direction of thetranslation, the direction determining the translation of the firstlanguage in the input field to the second language in the output field,or the translation of the second language in the input field to thefirst language in the output field.
 5. The system of claim 4, whereinthe direction of the translation is from the first language to thesecond language.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the direction of thetranslation is from the second language to the first language.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the user input in the first languagecomprises a plurality of words.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein theGUI input field is a text field or a text area.
 9. The system of claim1, wherein the GUI input field is rendered within a first area of thedisplay and the GUI output field is rendered within a second area of thedisplay, wherein no location within the first area overlaps with alocation in the second area.
 10. A system comprising at least oneprocessor executing program code instructions on a computing devicecoupled to a network, the program code instructions causing thecomputing device to: decode a web page including a graphical userinterface (GUI), the GUI containing a GUI input field; display the webpage within an Internet browser; receive, from the GUI input fielddisplayed within the GUI, a user input encoding a word or phrase in afirst language; access a database communication interface receivingquery commands causing a translation dictionary database, available viathe network, to select a translation of the user input into a secondlanguage; receive the translation of the user input into the secondlanguage; and display within a GUI output field displayed within theGUI, the translation of the user input into the second language.
 11. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the translation web page is received anddecoded responsive to a receipt of a message indicating a selection of alink.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first language received bythe GUI text input field automatically defaults to a native language ofa user.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the second language isselected from a GUI selection control identifying a direction of thetranslation, the direction determining the translation of the firstlanguage in the input field to the second language in the output field,or the translation of the second language in the input field to thefirst language in the output field.
 14. The system of claim 13, whereinthe direction of the translation is from the first language to thesecond language.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the direction ofthe translation is from the second language to the first language. 16.The system of claim 10, wherein the user input in the first languagecomprises a plurality of words.
 17. The system of claim 10, wherein theGUI input field is a text field or a text area.
 18. The system of claim10, wherein the GUI input field is rendered within a first area of thedisplay and the GUI output field is rendered within a second area of thedisplay, wherein no location within the first area overlaps with alocation in the second area.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein theprogram code instructions comprise a client-side scripting language. 20.A method comprising: encoding, by a server computer coupled to a networkand comprising at least one processor executing program codeinstructions, a translation web page including a graphical userinterface (GUI), and the GUI containing a GUI input field; transmitting,by the server computer, the translation web page to a client devicecoupled to the network for display; receiving, by the server computer,from the GUI input field displayed within the GUI on the client device,a transmission encoding a user input in a first language; accessing, bythe server computer, a database communication interface receiving querycommands causing a translation dictionary database to select atranslation of the user input into a second language; encoding, by theserver computer, a translation transmission comprising the translation;transmitting, by the server computer, the translation transmission ofthe user input into the second language to the client device for displaywithin a GUI output field displayed within the GUI on the client device.